Apostolic Ministry, by Rev. P. J. Murdoch. 1882 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA THE COLLECTION OF NORTH CAROLINIANA Transferred from the Department of Archives and History Cp?83.09 L74m THE J^OSTOLIC -VlffNISTRY. fe7. Apostolic Ministry. THK SUBSTANCE OF A SERMON PREACHED IN ST. LUKE'S CHURCH, LINCOLNTON, N. C, MARCH 5th, 1882, BY THE REV. F. J. MURDOCH, AT THE ORDINATION OF REV. W. S. BYNUM TO THE PRIESTHOOD. PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL TRACT SOCIETY, 12 Astor Place, New York. PREFACE. I claim no other merit for this sermon than that it expresses plainly what I believe to he the truth. It has been written out for publication in deference to the wishes of the Bishop of North Carolina and some of the clergy who heard it. F. J. M. SERMON. " He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me ? And he said unto him, Lord, Thou knowest all things ; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep." — St. John 21 : 17. We learn more from the writings of St. Paul, and especially from his Pastoral Epistles, concerning the three distinct orders of the ministry and their relations to each other, than from all the rest of the New Testament together. But yet it is to the words of our blessed Lord Himself that we must go to obtain an adequate notion of the office, the authority, the power, and the supreme motive of a good minister of Jesus Christ. I do not purpose to confine myself, this morn- ing, to the words of the text (I have chosen them to give emphasis to but one point in this dis- course) ; but I intend to review briefly what our Lord did with reference to the ministry of the twelve Apostles, and thence to point out the things essential to the office and work of a faith- ful minister of God. 5 6 In St. Mark's Gospel we read that our Lord, after a night spent in prayer, when it Luke 6: 12. wag day " ealleth unto Him whom He Mark3:13&14 would : and they came unto Him. And He ordained twelve that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach," and to minister to the sick according to the ability that should be given to them. Here let us notice three things : 1st. A person having authority to appoint ministers in the kingdom of God, the person in this case being our Lord Himself. 2d. That He actually called certain persons, inviting them to become His min- isters. 3d. That on their obeying that call (for we read that "they came unto Him"), He or- dained them, and thus conferred on them the proffered office. On a subsequent occasion we read that He enlarged their office, or, to use the language of theology, He raised them, or at least eleven of them, to a higher order of the ministry, when He gave them the authority to offer the per- petual memorial of His one sacrifice, once offered upon the cross — the power to present before God that " pure offering " spoken of by the prophet. Yet again He raised them to the highest office of the ministry when Luke 6: 13. He actlia yi y made tnem Apostles— the name had been given to them before John 20: 22 by anticipation — saying unto them, & 23. a R ece iy e y e the Holy Ghost : whoseso- ever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye shall retain, they are retained ; " and " As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you. " Thus John 20 : 21. the final enlargement of their office, the highest order of the ministry, was given to them. Next let us endeavor to ascertain over what per- sons, or within what local limits, these ministers were to exercise the authority given them. At first they were, it seems, to minister only in or near His immediate presence. " He ordained them that they should be with Him." Afterward He sent them forth, but only to "the lost sheep of Matt 10 . 5&6< the house of Israel." But after He rose from the dead He enlarged the field of their labors, saying unto them, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, Mat &jg. :19 and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have command- ed you." Thus their jurisdiction was given to them. These ministers, then, had been called ; the of- fice of Apostleship, with its appropriate authority, had been conferred upon them ; their jurisdiction had been assigned to them. Was any thing more needed ? Yes. They needed power from on high ; power that would enable them to accomplish that which mere men could not do ; power to preach the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. This power was promised them when our Lord said, " But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." This power was actually given them on the day of Pentecost. Had they not all things now that they needed ? Might they not now go forth to preach ? One thing more they needed. They needed a motive — a motive sufficient to impel them to do the work of the ministry. Without an adequate motive they would not labor at all, or at least the wheels of their chariots would move but heavily. What shall this motive be ? Nothing but the love of JESUS will suffice. " He saith unto Him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me ? and he said to Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things ; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.'' The points, then, to which I will direct your at- tention this morning are : first, the person by whom men are called and ordained to the minis- try ; and, second, with regard to the ministers themselves, we will consider their call, their ordi- nation to office, their jurisdiction, their power, and their ruling motive — that is, the love of Jesus. Inasmuch as a consideration of the first point will touch incidentally on some of the other things mentioned, I shall speak more briefly when I come to them. The happy agreement of all Christians for fif- teen centuries, and the almost unanimous consent of all now, who profess the name of Christ, that our Lord instituted a ministry in His Church, and willed that this ministry should continue until the end of the world, relieve me of the necessity of arguing this point. Let it suffice to say, that this belief is well warranted in Holy Scripture. Our Lord promised to be with the Apostles Matt 28 all the days, even unto the end of the world, to enable them to make disciples of all nations, and to teach them after they had been received into the Church by Holy Baptism. Now, inasmuch as the original Apostles are no longer on earth to preach, baptize, and govern the Church, this promise of our Lord's continual as- sistance in this work " all the days, even unto the end of the world," implies that there should be a perpetual ministry in the Church, carrying on the appointed work and enabled by our Lord's per- petual presence. A.gain the Holy Spirit, for He is the author of Scripture, after having given directions about the ordination and regulation of ministers, charges Timothy that this command- ment be kept without spot,- unrbukeable, until the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This shows that a ministry, by which, and con- cerning which, that commandment is to be kept, shall exist in the Church until the Lord shall come. Again, to pass over all other texts, our Lord predicts that, even at His coming, He will 10 find some of the stewards whom He had set over His household, to give them their meat in due season, — He will find some of these so doing, and reward them as faithful and wise stewards. These Scriptures make it cer- tain that there has been, is now, and shall be until the end, a ministry in the Church of God. But no man can be a minister of Christ, with- out authority from Him. A minister is not sim- ply a steward set over the household of God, but a steward whom his Lord has made ruler over that household. No man then can possibly be a minister of Christ, unless Christ has made him a ruler over His household. Again, a minister is an ambassador for Christ, which no man can be without authority from Him. In the language of Scripture, to preach without authority Rom &?5. 14 fr° m Christ is as great an absurdity as to hear what has not been preached, or as to believe what has not been heard. In fact, ministers are as much the positive institutions of Christ as the sacraments are, and have no force or efficacy but that which He gives them. There- fore we might just as well think that rites or cer- emonies, which Christ has not ordained, are truly sacraments, as to think that persons whom He has not appointed His ambassadors are truly His minis- ters. Without authority received from Christ, no man is, nor can be, His minister. Now it is certain, I do not mean probable, but 11 certain, that men can receive authority from Christ in but two ways only. Authority can come from Him either directly and immediately ; or else it may be derived from him mediately, that is through those persons to whom He has given authority, and whom he has authorized to trans- mit it to others. We cannot possibly imagine any other way in which authority from Christ can come. It must come either directly from His own person, or from Him, through the persons of others. Let us consider these alternatives in order. When a man claims to have received authority directly from Christ, and to have been made His minister in this way, he either has, or he has not, miraculous proof of the truth of that which he claims. St. Paul claimed to have been made an Apostle in this way. He claimed to be an Apostle <( not of man, neither by man," but to have received his call and his author- ity directly from our Lord Himself. But then he has miracles to prove the truth of his claim. " Truly the signs of an Apostle were 2 Cor. 12 : 12. wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds." The Chris- tians at Damascus were sufficiently assured that Christ had indeed authorized Saul to become His minister, not only by the light and the voice from heaven, and the blindness which befell him, of which things there were other witnesses besides Saul, but also by the revelation to Ananias that Christ had chosen Saul to bear His name " before 12 Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel." See how clearly his appointment to the ministry was attested before he dared even to preach at Damascus. There is no evidence that he dared to baptize until Barnabas had brought him to the Apostles at Acts 9 ■ 27 GaL i : is & 19. Jerusalem, and declared the miracu- 'lous proof of his call near Damascus, and then he was permitted by Peter and James to go in and out with them, and to preach in the name of the Lord Jesus. Thus the authorities of the Church, having been assured by miraculous proof that Jesus had appeared unto him " to make him a minister," permitted Acts 26:16. . . . . ,, . . . , him to exercise this ministry. After- ward when Paul, whom Christ had made a min- ister, and Barnabas, whom the Apostles had sent to regulate the Church at Anti- Act < * 14 ■ 23 och, began to exercise episcopal func- tions among the Gentiles, where the original Apostles had not assigned them jurisdiction, a revelation was made to St. Paul to go up to. Jeru- salem to confer with the Apostles, for Christ, having given them authority over the Church, would not slight his own institution. Gal 2 Without the full sanction of the origi- nal Apostles, St. Paul had run or would run in vain. So when the pillars of the Ga! S 2 15 ' Church had been satisfied concerning the miracles wrought by Barnabas and Paul among the Gentiles, they, seeing the 13 grace that was given unto 'them, assigned to them their jurisdiction among the Gentiles, and that too on certain conditions. Thus we see when the miraculous proof that Christ has made a man His minister, or wills him to have a certain jurisdiction, is abundant and clear, even jet it must be examined and approved by the pillars of the Church ; otherwise such a man will run in vain. But there are many who claim to have been made ministers directly by Christ, by a secret in- ward call, without any palpable miraculous proof. Now, I do not mean to denounce that inward long- ing to labor for the glory of God and the edifica- tion of the Church, that laudable de- sire of the office of a bishop, which, even in St. Paul's day, had become a proverb in the Church. But to claim to have received such an inward call as makes one a minister of Christ, when there is no palpable miraculous proof of the truth of it, is nothing but blind fanaticism. For such a call must mean this, that the Lord should say to a man, li I do now make thee my minister." Such a call would be neither more nor less than a revelation, and of a revelation there can be no proof aside from a miracle . - ■. „ . x With this para- There WOuld be 110 proof which QUffllt graph compare 1 . ° Mozlcy's 1st to satisfy the person in question him- Lecture on JMir3,clcs. self, much less should it satisfy others. It is true that the idea that he has been made a minister, by a call from Christ, may come into a 14 man's mind. But the idea and the proof that it is -a, fact, are two very different things. All a man knows is that such an idea has come into his mind, as a thousand other ideas have, some of which in- fluence him much, some little ; some of which prove true, and some of which prove false. The mere fact that such an idea, which influences him strongly, has come into his mind at all, may in- duce an enthusiastic man to let it stand for its own witness, and believe it as a fact that he has indeed thus been made a minister. But no sober man, who is governed by reason, would believe it with- out miraculous -proof. What an absurd pretense at reasoning this would be, li I admit that a hun- dred ideas which have come into my mind, I knoAV not whence, have proved to be false, but this one came into my mind, I know not whence, therefore it is true." There can be no sufficient guarantee to a man himself that he has been made a minister by an inward call, until he has palpable miraculous proof that it is a fact. If this cannot be known to a man himself, much less can it be known to others, without a miracle. For supposing, though not admitting, that I had been made a minister, by a secret inward call, with- out miracle, how could others know this ? If I am an impostor, they are bound to reject me. ' ' Beware of false prophets. " If I am indeed a Matt. 10. . . l L . . minister of Christ, to receive me is to receive Him, to despise me is to despise Him, to reject me is to choose a lot than which that of Sodom 15 and Gomorrah will be more tolerable in the day of judgment. Yet without a miracle, they cannot know certainly the truth of that which I assert. No one man, nor company of men, whether clergy or laity, can read my heart. Even an inspired Apostle said " What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him ? " To suppose that I am thus sent is to suppose the in- credible folly that God has sent me as His ambas- sador, yet without credentials ; that He requires men at the peril of their souls to accept me, if I am truly sent, and to reject me if I am not thus sent, when they cannot possibly know whether I am truly sent or not. Whoever asserts such a thing as this does both sin and charge God foolishly. There can then be no proof that Christ has directly made a man His minister, unless that of palpable miracles approved by the Church. (Notes A. and Note A. — There are some who think that St. Paul's injunction to Timothy, " Make full proof of thy ministry" (2d Tim. 4), means that by the success of his ministry it would be known whether he was indeed a minister or not. The Kevisers have swept away such a notion by translating the passage correctly, " fulfill thy ministry." Note B.— In those denominations where some even claim to have been made ministers by a direct call from Christ, why do they suffer none of them, though already Christ's ministers, to administer sacraments till ordained ? How can they know that these men have indeed been made ministers by the Lord ? If their ordination is merely a certificate from the ministry whereby they certify to the people that Christ has already made the persons ordained His ministers, why do they use a form ? " Take thou authority for the office and work of in the Church of God now committed unto thee," (or equivalent words), which implies that it is the ordination and not the supposed call of Christ that commits the office, that is that makes the minister. 16 If then no man can be a minister of Christ, without authority from Him, and if He does not give authority directly and immediately to men without the credential of miracles, and if such ministers are not now to be found, then, inasmuch as it is certain that there is still a true ministry in His Church, those ministers must have received their authority from Christ by transmission. But what saith the Scripture ? Are there any commands to transmit authority or instances of such transmission in the New Testament ? Titus was commanded to ordain elders in every city — and thus transmit author- ity to them. The seven deacons ministered by authority transmitted from Christ by the twelve Apostles to them. Authority was Acts 14 transmitted by Paul and Barnabas from Christ to the elders ordained in Asia Minor. Titus and Timothy ministered by authority trans- mitted from Christ by St. Paul to them. The elders ordained by these had authority from Christ, but transmitted first by St. Paul to Titus or Timothy, and then from one of these to them. Both reason and Scripture then tell us that au- thority can be transmitted. The next question is, "What order of the minis- try has power to transmit authority to other men ? A moment's reflection will show that to have au- thority, and to be able to transmit it, are two very different things. A judge of one of our courts has ample authority, but he cannot transmit it to 17 others. He cannot authorize another man to take his place on the bench, and to perform his duties either for a time or permanently. He cannot ap- point other judges. Even so a minister may have authority, and yet not be able to transmit it to other men. It is a very material question, then, "What order of the ministry has authority to transmit authority to others?" For, even if I have authority from Christ Himself, if I cannot transmit it to others, all efforts to transmit it would be futile and vain. Now, it is so generally admitted, that in the days of the original Apostles there were three or- ders of the ministry : first, Apostles, whom we now call Bishops ; second, Elders or Bishops, whom Ave now call Presbyters ; and, third, Dea- cons, that I need not attempt to prove what is so plain. It never has been contended by any body of Christians that Deacons can transmit authority to other men ; so our inquiry is narrowed doAvn to the question as to whether it is Elders, or the higher order of the ministry, that is authorized by the New Testament to ordain ministers, thus transmitting authority to them. Now, the case stands thus : There is not one word in Holy Scripture of command or permis- sion to Elders to ordain ; there is not one clear example of such an ordination (Note C) ; there is I Tim. 4 : 14. Note C— Some think that the words " with the lay- ing on of the hands of the presbytery " denote that Timothy was ordained by presbyters. Calvin and others thought it 18 not one known example of such a claim made in the early Church among those who knew what the Apostles taught; there was not one such claim made for three centuries, and then only to be dis- allowed and condemned. There is not one Father who asserts that such ordination was allowed in the Church in his time. There were not half as many instances of such attempts during fifteen centuries as there were centuries ; and then al- ways condemned and disallowed, save only in one instance, where it was instigated by a Pope, at the end of the thirteenth century. (See Note D.) On the other hand, the Apostles were set over both Churches and Elders, with power to ordain. St. Paul set Titus and Timothy over Churches and Elders, with power to ordain. Over each of the seven Churches of Asia there was one man with power to coerce teachers. Uniformly in the Church, for fifteen centuries (except the attempts above mentioned), Bishops, who were superior to Elders, were allowed to ordain. Add to this that it is so still in every Church where the existing meant " when Timothy received the office of Presbyter." At any rate, St. Paul does not say Timothy received the gift by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, but with it ; but he does say 2 Tim. 1 : G. that Timothy received the gift ' ; by the putting on of my hands." At the ordination of a Presbyter among us, Presbyters lay on hands with the Bishop (after the example of St. Paul). The person ordained receives the office by the laying on of the Bishop's hands, but with (at the time of) the laying on of the hands of the con- senting presbyters. Note D.— Celestine V. empowered Francis of Apt, a Franciscan friar, to confer priest's orders on Ludovico, son of Charles, King of Sicily. See article "Celestine V." in Encyclopaedia Britannica. 19 order was not changed at the Reformation ; and that when ordination by Elders was first intro- duced by Continental Protestants, they did not claim that it was warranted by Scripture, but only by necessity. Now, let us remember that the plea of necessity has never been allowed by God for interfering with His ministry. When Saul, unable to procure an authorized minister, offered sacrifice and pleaded necessity, God rejected him for it. " Thou hast done foolishly ; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which lie commanded thee ; therefore now would the Lord have established thy kingdom over Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not con- tinue." Uzzah thought himself warranted by necessity to take it on himself to execute the office of a Priest and touch the Ark of God, but God smote him for his error. When thus we count up all the probabilities on the one side against those on the other, which are really few or none, it is certain that the evidence that the highest order of the ministry alone had authority to ordain, is such that all men should act on it. For it is infallibly certain that where there is great probability on one side, against less on the other, we are bound to act on the greater. It is on such probability that we accept the canon of rhe New Testament, and we can have no other proof concerning it. Nay, it is such probability alone that we have of the truth of Christianity itself, prior to that experience of obedience, to 20 which it is promised that "if any man shall do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." It is most unreasonable and unscriptural, then, to act on any other belief than that authority to ordain was intrusted to an order of ministers superior to the Presbyters ; to an order then called Apostles, but which we now call Bishops. Now, as authority to ordain was safely transmit- ted by St. Paul to Titus and Timothy, and, no doubt, by the other Apostles to other men, so there is no rational doubt that it has been handed down safely to this day. Irenaeus and Tertullian are witnesses that it was safely transmitted till their day, and in some instances they mention the succession of Bishops. I have named these two contemporary Fathers, not only because they lay such stress on that transmission, and are such emphatic witnesses that it had been safely accom- plished until their day, but because the former knew well Polycarp, who had been made Bishop by St. John, and so could know certainly the truth of what he asserted. But about the time of these Fathers that rule, handed down to us in the first Apostolic Canon, seems to have come into universal use, which requires a Bishop to be ordained by three, or at least two, other Bishops. About a century and a quarter later this rule was made stricter by the Niceno Council, which re- quired at least three Bishops to ordain another. When we remember that the Church in every age 21 has been as careful that every ordination of a Bishop should be valid as she is now ; when we remember that such ordinations have always been public, like that of Timothy, "in the midst of many witnesses ;" when we remember that no one Bishop of any one of the prominent sees of Christendom has been proved not to have been validly ordained ; when we remember that if any one of the three or more Bishops who ordain is really a Bishop, the person ordained is really or- dained, and when we remember our Lord's prom- ise of His continual presence with the Apostles and their successors all the days, even unto the end of the world, what is wanting to a reasonable conviction that our Bishops have received author- ity from Christ, transmitted generation after gen- eration from the original Apostles ? that, like Titus and Timothy, they have authority not only to govern Churches in the name of Christ, but to choose and ordain elders in every city ? I will now much more briefly touch on the re- maining points. The call to the ministry as well as the ordination comes through the Bishop. Our Lord called unto Him whom He would, and then ordained them, or, as St. Luke expressed it, '•' He called unto Him His disciples and of them He choose twelve ; " so the Holy Apostles chose out and called fit men to the ministry. Titus and Timothy were not directed to ordain those whom they should perceive to be called, but they were to choose out and call the best men in the Church 22 to the ministry. Our Article expressly teaches that Bishops have power to call as well as to or- dain. Whether the call be given to those who would not otherwise come forward, or whether it come in the form of accepting those who, desir- ing to devote themselves to the ministry, seek a call, in both cases the call comes from the Bishop. All the services of the Church are constructed on this supposition. In the prayers for Ember Weeks, used till the very day before ordination, w T e pray that the Bishops and Pastors of Christ's flock may " wisely make choice of fit persons to serve in the sacred ministry," and those to be or- dained are spoken of as those "who are to be called to any office and administration " in the Church. In the ordination offices it is only after the last opportunity for objecting to the ordina- tion has passed, that in the collect the persons are spoken of as "now called" to the office of Dea- con or Priest, The call has been conditional up to that time, then it is made finally obligatory. The persons to bo ordained are not asked whether they think themselves called to the min- istry. Before the Bishop asks them any questions at all, in prayer to God he has asserted that they are called to the ministry. But they are asked as to whether they think in their hearts that they are called according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Canons of the Church. A man cannot but know whether he thinks all the re- quirements of the Canons have been complied 23 with. But the other part of the question is very searching. For it is not the will of our Lord that men enter the ministry whose motives are the love of filthy lucre, or the desire of the praise of men, or of position in the Church. A man must be conscious that his motive is the desire to pro- mote the Glory of God and the edification of the Church, before he answer that question affirma- tively. And he must believe that on the condi- tions of the Gospel he is entitled to salvation, for it is not the will of our Lord that His ministers should preach an unknown God, declaring to others Him whom they know not themselves. Ordination confers the office. When one is or- dained a Priest an indelible character is impressed upon him, a Priest he will be until death. Hooker says, " suspensions may stop, and deg- radations utterly cut off the use or exercise of power (he means ( authority ') before given, but voluntarily it is not in the power of man to separate and pull asunder, what God by His authority coupleth." A man ordained Priest is as much a Priest at the end of fifty or sixty years as he was the day he was ordained. Even wickedness does not take away his office— as our Lord intimates. He is still a steward, though a wicked one, and shall give account, not only as a man, but as a minister, and if found unfaithful in this latter capacity, his Lord will cut him asun- der and appoint him his portion with unbelievers. By virtue of the office, all things absolutely neces-